


One More Minute

by lilcogs



Category: Everlark - Fandom, The Hunger Games
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2015-07-11
Packaged: 2018-04-08 19:15:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4316577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilcogs/pseuds/lilcogs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peeta's speed dating endeavors finally pay off.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One More Minute

**Author's Note:**

> Heehee, I always like a little sexy, confident Katniss. Enjoy.  
> Find me on Tumblr at everlark-af.

Peeta sighed and ran a hand through his blond curls. Two hours. Two _hours_ he had been here, ass planted on a barstool while girl after girl passed through, giving some cliché backstory while they ogled over him.

Daddy issues. That's all Peeta saw in these women. They grazed his thigh with their hands and told him what they'd do with him if he agreed to come back to their place. Seriously, who had raised them to believe that such things were appropriate at an event like this? At this point, though, he was unfazed by all of it. He had spent one too many nights waiting up for someone just right - someone he knew would never come. Speed dating was a common occurrence for him (every Wednesday, in fact, for the bar's weekly "Rapid Romance" night), because who had time to actually bump into a stranger and get to know them over coffee? That only happened in movies, he had decided a long time ago, when he had met a woman at a party, concluded he was in love, and then had promptly walked in on her with another man in bed a week later. In  _his_ bed. In _his_ house.

So when there was a lull in the stream of desperate sluts hoping for a good time, he grabbed his wallet and headed for the door of the bar.

"Hey!" Peeta heard from behind him. "I thought I was your next?"

Rolling his eyes, Peeta turned around to confront the forlorn woman.

He was met with a set of piercing grey eyes and a smirking pair of lips. Her hair cascaded down across her shoulders in silky, dark waves, across smooth, olive-skinned shoulders. Her strong legs ended in a pair of perfectly manicured feet wearing bright red wedge heels, and her skin-tight black dress left little to the imagination. This woman was far from forlorn. She was gorgeous, sexy, the most _amazing_ girl he had ever seen.

Peeta realized he was staring, and quickly averted his eyes from hers.

"Well?" The woman continued. "What do you have to say for yourself?" He couldn't force any words from his mouth.

This woman knew the effect she had on him, seemed to be familiar with it.

Finally Peeta straightened his shoulders and blinked several times. "I was just about to leave. These things never work out for me."

The goddess before him pouted, sticking out her bottom lip and widening her eyes. "That's no fun," she said to him. "Can you stay a little while longer?"

"W-Why?" Peeta stuttered, perplexed as to why this beauty would want _him_ to stay. There were dozens of other men in this bar. All of whom were outright gawking at her.

She approached him. "Well," she stated, taking his arm. He nearly shivered at her touch. "You're pretty cute, and you seem like you deserve so much more than what these skanks are offering you."

He nodded, barely, and said, "But I think our minute is up." Really? That was the best he could come up with to say to such a beautiful woman that was obviously flirting with him?

She laughed, the most melodious sound he had ever heard. "Well then, I guess you'll just have to buy me a drink, won't you?"

He nodded. Again. Ugh, he was screwing this whole thing up. This was going to be a long night if he didn't loosen up a little.

**X-X-X-X**

It was nearly two in the morning, and Peeta lay in bed, love-struck.  _Katniss. What a beautiful name._ He had left her at the bar an hour earlier. He was hesitant, but he needed to, er, _take care_ _of himself_ before she saw.

Now he sighed. Thinking about her brought on all sorts of images, none of which he needed in his head right now. Especially not about a girl that he had just met that night.

He had managed to get her number. Should he call her? _No_ , he told himself. He couldn't make himself seem desperate. But wasn't that exactly what he was? Desperate? He hadn't stopped going to the bar every Wednesday night for the speed dating, despite how much he hated it. Didn't that _mean_ something? That he wanted a relationship? But Katniss was different. She wasn't just one of the lonely, horny women that rotated through his bed on a regular basis. She meant something. Something special.

So why _wasn't_ he calling her?

Peeta slapped a pillow over his face and groaned loudly. Suddenly his phone buzzed, and he jolted upright. It lit up as he grabbed it off of his nightstand, and he quickly entered his passcode to unlock it.

 **Katniss:** Hi

She had texted him first. That _had_ to mean something. Quickly he tapped out a response.

 **Peeta:** What's up?

He watched the "typing" bubble intently and waited.

 **Katniss:** I have a problem, Peeta.

 **Peeta:** What? What's wrong?

All the worst possibilities ran through Peeta's head as Katniss typed.

_I only have a day left to live._

_I only talked to you on a dare._

_I'm actually a man._

But then came Katniss's reply.

 **Katniss:** I can't stop thinking about you.

Peeta nearly dropped his phone. _She_ couldn't stop thinking about _him?_ What the hell was going on? She really did like him? What had he done for such a perfect person to have a feeling like that about him?

 **Peeta:** I can't stop thinking about me, either.

Jesus Christ. What the hell did he just do?

 **Katniss:** haha

 **Peeta:** I'm sorry. That was rude.

 **Katniss:** No, it's okay.

 **Peeta:** No, it's not. I can't stop thinking about you either.

 **Katniss:** Really?

 **Peeta:** yeah

 **Peeta** : I really like you, Katniss. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever met.

 **Katniss:** I'm blushing

 **Peeta:** lol

Peeta grimaced. He could cut the sexual tension with a knife. What were they doing? What was about to happen? His phone buzzed again.

 **Katniss:** I really like you too, Peeta.

 **Peeta:** Really?

 **Katniss:** Yeah. You're the coolest guy I've ever met.

Peeta couldn't think. He couldn't breathe. Everything was happening so fast, and it turned out that he wasn't the only one that felt the way he did. So he did the only thing he could think of: He acted on those feelings.

 **Peeta:** Do you want to come over?

He shouldn't have asked it. He shouldn't have. Nothing good could happen after midnight, and he knew that- had learned it the hard way. But the thought fled his mind as his phone lit up with Katniss's answer.

 **Katniss:** Yeah

**X-X-X-X**

_My glasses are the last thing I put on before taking a deep breath and walking to my car. I can't believe Peeta would actually_ inviteme over. _It was so unusual for a first... well, not a first_ date _, exactly, but a first something. Then again, Peeta was an unusual circumstance._

_He was so attractive, and I had eyed him practically the whole night as slut after slut waltzed over to him, hoping for a companion for that night but offering nothing in return. He looked so bored, and I felt bad, so I had pretended that I was in on the whole desperation act - speed dating, that is._

_I hadn't missed the way his eyes, lit up upon seeing me, had travelled up my body languidly. Or the way the crotch of his pants became tighter and tighter the closer I moved towards him. I couldn't believe that I could have that effect on someone. I had never experienced that before, and I could definitely get used to it. Gale was the only one besides Peeta that may have ever looked at me in such a way, but I wasn't interested in my best friend of ten years. So when Peeta had suddenly excused himself and went home, I was crushed. He had seemed so interested in me._ _What had I done wrong?_

_And then his text came through later that night-_ "I really like you, Katniss _._ You're the most beautiful woman I've ever met." _So I_ wasn't _imagining it. Peeta really had liked me. But at that point I had been confused. Why did he leave me at that bar if he reciprocated the feelings I had for him?_

_And now, of course, here we are, back in the present, preparing for a visit to Peeta's house. More thrown off than ever. It's on and off with this guy. It doesn't matter; I need to see him again. To feel his firm chest under my touch, and see his blue eyes sparkling out at me under blonde lashes. A mix of excitement and dread courses through my veins. What the hell is about to happen?_

**X-X-X-X**

Peeta paced the area in front of his door. Katniss would be here any minute now. Her text had told him so. But for some reason, he couldn't shake the fear that she would bail at the last second. It had happened before. What was to say she was any different?

His thoughts were interrupted by a curt knock, and his heart leapt into his throat as his hand reached for the knob.

The first thing he saw when he pulled open the door to his apartment was the difference between Katniss's ' _night-out_ ' outfit and her ' _you-just-texted-me-at-two-in-the-morning-to-come-over-so-here-I-am_ ' outfit. Her red heels were gone, replaced by black Nike sneakers. She had opted for a baggy sweatshirt instead of a dress, and her yoga pants were tight in all the right places. They fit her awfully well.

Her dark hair was pulled back into a bun, and her black-rimmed glasses were placed over her storm-grey eyes. She still looked incredible, even without the formal attire. In fact, she looked better, if that was possible.

Yet all he could manage was, "Wow, you wear glasses?"

She flashed him a tired smile and entered his home. "Nice place," she commented.

"Eh, it's nothing much, but I like to keep it tidy," he replied.

She laughed and said, "Good, because I have a feeling I'll be coming over here more often than you'll be coming over my house."

He couldn't believe his ears. Had she just implied that she would be returning in the future?

"Why?" he asked.

Katniss scrunched her nose. "Too messy," she answered. "Besides, it's nowhere near this nice."

Peeta laughed at this. "I wouldn't figure you for an unorganized person," he said to her. 

She shrugged.

"Anyway," Peeta continued, walking to the kitchen with Katniss following behind. "You want a drink?" He held up a crappy bottle of wine that he had rushed out to buy before she had arrived.

"Why, _Peeta_ ," Katniss said in mock offense. She brought her hand to her chest. "Are you trying to get me drunk?"

Peeta grinned mischievously at her, playing along. "Maybe," he said.

Drunk or not, he wanted to get to know this girl.


End file.
